A refrigerator full of fresh vegetables, water and fruit juice... clearly this is a sign of some form of eating disorder. Where are the prepackaged meals full of sugar and simple carbs? Where are the soft drinks and beer? Where are the cakes and pies?

TFA"Eliminating dairy products, for example, can result in calcium deficiency, which can increase the risk of developing osteoporosis.

For years I busted my ass exercising to the poiint where my wife worried I was going to have a heart attack and never made a dent in my beer belly. I switched from the standard crap US diet to the list of foods people should be eating and dropped twenty pounds in four months just sitting on my ass. My wife is eating the same and has picked up the nickname "skinny biatch" at work because she's dropping fat faster than I am. People ask what the secret is and when I tell them to eat list A and not list B everybody farking whines about how eating good food is somehow impossible to do.

I always laugh when I hear or read "consult your doctor before going on a diet". Everyone is on a diet, whether they are conscious of it or not. No one except the Super-Size-Me guy consults a doctor before they decide to eat at McDonalds everyday.

I watch what I eat sometimes but not others. In my experience when I eat brown rice and beans and vegetables, or a salad, someone will say "ooh that food is unbalanced and unhealthy!" But no one ever has any comment when I eat pizza or a cheesesteak and french fries.

To a point, yes. High levels of physical activity can do a lot to make up for extra calories and whatnot. But eating crap will catch up with you in the long run. It doesn't matter how many miles you run or how many weights you lift, if you eat hamburgers and fries every day, you'll end up with colon cancer and high blood pressure eventually.

Not that there's anything wrong with an occasional hamburger, but there's a reason most heavyweight athletes are dead by 60, and it isn't lack of physical activity.

Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar, HFCS and other simple carbs make you fat by screwing with your insulin.

And trust me, you stick with List A and you'll be wolfing down all the avacados and bacon you can get your hands on because the rest of it is so low in fat.

When I decided to get in shape again I had a hard time overcoming my fat-phobia so every day I would fry up some bacon, have it as an appetizer, then cook some steak in the bacon grease, lost weight like it was going out of style.

I stick with mostly lean meat these days but will still throw down on some bacon.

dittybopper:rudemix: Problem being Hostess, Nabisco, McDonalds, etc do not want people to know how truly easy it is to eat healthy.

...which is why they have salads with or without grilled chicken available right on the menu.

I never looked at it like that. Nabisco and Hostess also offer 'lowfat' and 'lowcarb' snacks too. Maybe they are much more altruistic than I thought. They must be. It's only a matter of time before they erase the other 99.9999999% of their overly unhealthy foods and replace it with good, healthy food. Lord knows they'll make as much money peddling salads at McDonalds and selling zero carb/fat/sugar cookies right next to Oreos.

Ayone who is going to McDonalds as a plan to eat healthy is failing anyways. If you can walk into that place and shell out 5$ for a salad, you can probably find a grocery store and spend that 5$ on a bit of fruit and some edamame and still have money left over for a 78oz diet coke. Because McDonalds sells Diet Coke too. See how much they care!

rudemix:dittybopper: rudemix: Problem being Hostess, Nabisco, McDonalds, etc do not want people to know how truly easy it is to eat healthy.

...which is why they have salads with or without grilled chicken available right on the menu.

I never looked at it like that. Nabisco and Hostess also offer 'lowfat' and 'lowcarb' snacks too. Maybe they are much more altruistic than I thought. They must be. It's only a matter of time before they erase the other 99.9999999% of their overly unhealthy foods and replace it with good, healthy food. Lord knows they'll make as much money peddling salads at McDonalds and selling zero carb/fat/sugar cookies right next to Oreos.

Ayone who is going to McDonalds as a plan to eat healthy is failing anyways. If you can walk into that place and shell out 5$ for a salad, you can probably find a grocery store and spend that 5$ on a bit of fruit and some edamame and still have money left over for a 78oz diet coke. Because McDonalds sells Diet Coke too. See how much they care!

They sell that stuff because that is what sells. It's a pretty simple idea, really. It's like blaming GM for making gas guzzlers when that is what people are buying.

What you have to do is change the behavior of the customers, and then the manufacturers and retailers will follow suite. You can't expect to change the behavior of the manufacturers and retailers and then expect the customers will follow, because unless you mandate it in law (which would have some pretty major problems in and of itself), some will stick with the old ways, and they will increase market share, and the ones that did change will have to change back or be marginalized.

Le French Boo:I have an amigo that could be "diagnosed" with this. He's about as evangelical about it as some christian folks. Because of this I always make sure to order a double cheeseburger rather than single-pattied burger.

You might want to be careful. I think Family Guy did an episode like this where Stewie became grotesquely fat.

rudemix:If you can walk into that place and shell out 5$ for a salad, you can probably find a grocery store and spend that 5$ on a bit of fruit and some edamame and still have money left over for a 78oz diet coke.

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were serious. A serious person would recognize that:

1. Often it is hard to find a supermarket conveniently close.2. Not all markets carry edamame.3. It's faster to get a pre-made salad.

Dear lord these people are f*cking idiots. Everything people do must be a disorder. I will admit some people might overdue but that doesn't mean they have a damn disorder. Sounds like this article was brought to you by the Corn Lobby, fast food chains, pesticide industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. If you like to be healthy there is something wrong with you.

dittybopper:rudemix: dittybopper: rudemix: Problem being Hostess, Nabisco, McDonalds, etc do not want people to know how truly easy it is to eat healthy.

...which is why they have salads with or without grilled chicken available right on the menu.

I never looked at it like that. Nabisco and Hostess also offer 'lowfat' and 'lowcarb' snacks too. Maybe they are much more altruistic than I thought. They must be. It's only a matter of time before they erase the other 99.9999999% of their overly unhealthy foods and replace it with good, healthy food. Lord knows they'll make as much money peddling salads at McDonalds and selling zero carb/fat/sugar cookies right next to Oreos.

Ayone who is going to McDonalds as a plan to eat healthy is failing anyways. If you can walk into that place and shell out 5$ for a salad, you can probably find a grocery store and spend that 5$ on a bit of fruit and some edamame and still have money left over for a 78oz diet coke. Because McDonalds sells Diet Coke too. See how much they care!

They sell that stuff because that is what sells. It's a pretty simple idea, really. It's like blaming GM for making gas guzzlers when that is what people are buying.

What you have to do is change the behavior of the customers, and then the manufacturers and retailers will follow suite. You can't expect to change the behavior of the manufacturers and retailers and then expect the customers will follow, because unless you mandate it in law (which would have some pretty major problems in and of itself), some will stick with the old ways, and they will increase market share, and the ones that did change will have to change back or be marginalized.

Good points, well taken. I'm guess I'm venting frustration at the fact it isn't rocket science for people to eat and be healthy but it is so ignored. I've gone from 330 to 209 (this AM) in a slow, steady, healthy way. There was no insta-pill, easy way or Celebrity Colon Cleanse that did it. It was a focused effort on changing diet and exercise. But none of that information was hard to find. Most people understand that eating better, eating smaller portions and moving more will ead to weight loss but it is rarely done. IMO, the hardest part of weight loss occurs in the mind, not the body.

Well, I need to get eat one of my six meals because I'm running low on fuel ;) It causes me to rant.

/lunch today is 4oz of tuna (water drained) and brown rice. Second lunch is 6oz of chicken breast and green beans.

You low-carb people are worse than the low-fat people. The only problem with the foods you listed is that they are calorie dense. If they're refined they don't have any soluble fiber, but even that doesn't make them BAD, it just makes them easier to abuse.

Your dinner isn't supposed to consist of corn, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. That's no more or less healthy than a dinner consisting of pork chops, chicken, and brisket. Cutting out an entire food group is short-sighted, and recommending that EVERYONE cut out that same food group is naive.

Are endurance athletes supposed to go low-carb too? Someone who's running a half or full marathon is supposed to load up on grilled chicken salad the night before the race? When they run out of glycogen on mile 20, you want them to eat an apple instead of a sports drink?

Carbs are necessary, and grains and starches are useful, effective, healthy ways of getting them. If you don't handle them well, fine. But don't presume everyone shares your deficiency.

By psychiatric definition, no behavior is considered "abnormal" until it significantly interferes with an individual's health or well-being. A person can hear voices in his head all day long, and if he's happy, healthy, can hold a job, and has good relationships, he's not considered "sick." The orthorexics referred to in this article are people who have significantly lost function in their lives because of their obsession with healthy eating. An example would be if somebody gave up all his friends because the thought of seeing them eat "unhealthy" foods gave the person panic attacks.

And seriously, your complaint that a low carb diet doesn't work for endurance atheletes like marathon runners? Look around, how many of those do you see? We don't have a problem with hordes of endurance athaletes fainting away because they're not getting their 5K Calories a day. We do have an epidemic of obesity and diabetes.

Also, I'm sane about eating. Everyone knows that cake isn't something that is good for us but we eat it sometimes anyway because we like it. It's the same with List B. If you want corn on the cob or a piece of cake with buttercream frosting, go ahead, just don't make that list the farking basis for your daily diet.

Jubeebee:When they run out of glycogen on mile 20, you want them to eat an apple instead of a sports drink?

Apples have carbs, as do most fruits, so yeah, that would work.

In fact, I just helped out with the local Tour de Cure, and guess what they had at all the rest stops? Stuff like oranges and bananas, along with the little PB&J sandwiches, mini Clif bars, no-carb sports drink, and water.

No one ever said 'cut out *ALL* carbs', at least no sane person. Low carb, not no carb, unless of course you are burning calories like there is no tomorrow, then you can up the carb intake to compensate.

Probably the best diet, though, from a nutritional standpoint, would be one that mimics a hunter/gatherer lifestyle. Lean meats, fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts.

Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar, HFCS and other simple carbs make you fat by screwing with your insulin.

And trust me, you stick with List A and you'll be wolfing down all the avacados and bacon you can get your hands on because the rest of it is so low in fat.

Yeah...one kind of anything in excess or to the exclusion of other things is bad. That's like saying that you can fulfill your caloric needs for the day by drinking a pint of whiskey.

List B: Here's what people normally eat that they shouldn't1. CornThere is absolutely nothing wrong with corn in general. Corn meal and corn flour, with pretty much any legume, make a whole protein and between the two offer a considerable amount more actual nutrients.

2. PotatosReally? WTF do you have against potatoes? Lots of fiber, protein, vitamin C and iron.

3. BreadThis is highly subjective. There's decent healthy bread made with whole grains and without a shiat-ton of oil, and then there's hard-core processed white flour butter buns.

The other thing is, that people always ignore, it's about proportion, not abstinence. If you eat a whole loaf of bread a day, then yeah, that's bad. A piece of toast in the morning and a sandwich for lunch on the other hand....

4. RiceSame as bread. There's nothing wrong with rice in general, it's 1. how it's prepared and 2. serving size. 1/2 cup of prepared rice with a meal balanced by vegetables and protein is fine. A heaping mound of rice drowning in some thick sauce is bad.

5. SugarSugar has a bad rep. Natural sugars from fruit and vegetables are fine, and processed sugar is OK within reason.

For instance, I've been vegetarian for ~8 years. I stopped eating meat because I'd been overweight my whole life and wanted to try a managed diet that didn't involve counting calories. Over the course of a year, I lost all the extra weight, and felt better in general than I ever had. It wasn't purely from not eating meat, it was the fact that in having given that up, I couldn't justify eating junkfood. Kind of hard to pick up a donut if I won't even allow myself a piece of chicken.

For protein I go with corn, rice, beans, and tubers. Occasionally I'll go with tofu..but it's not my favorite thing in the world. There are many diets that work. That's evident by the fact that people all over the world in different cultures, with different resources, survived to build independent civilizations. Anyone that says that there's only one right way to eat is trying to sell something.

Damn, I must be doing something terribly wrong then. Recently bought a new pair of jeans, figured I needed 32 inch waist since I haven't had a 30 inch waist since high school. Brought them home and tried them on and...I need to cinch up my belt to keep them from falling down to my ankles.

Also, just this weekend I witnessed some drunk asshole being a jackass down at the marina. He ended up jumping out of his boat and pushing it into its slip (the water was only ~4ft deep, I guess he figured it was better than a potential dui, no idea). Anyway, the problem was he was then unable to pull himself out of the water and back onto the dock. I had been standing angrily by, watching him be an idiot, but then his friend asked if I could come help. So I, all of about 150lbs, had to go pull this 185-190lb dumbass out of the water because he couldn't even lift his own body weight. But yeah, I'm the one with an eating problem...

dittybopper:Jubeebee: When they run out of glycogen on mile 20, you want them to eat an apple instead of a sports drink?

Apples have carbs, as do most fruits, so yeah, that would work.

The problem for the marathon runners is that they're engaging in an extreme level of physical activity that is putting them in a metabolically compromised state. At mile 20 the marathoner can't digest anything so the only option is for them to drink a glucose and salt solution that can be absorbed directly into the bloodstream.

If they were walking the twenty-six miles, apples would be fine but they're trying to cover the distance as fast as possible which is why competetive marathoners look like hammered shiat three quarters of the way into the race and why the original marathoner is said to have dropped dead after delivering his message.

By psychiatric definition, no behavior is considered "abnormal" until it significantly interferes with an individual's health or well-being. A person can hear voices in his head all day long, and if he's happy, healthy, can hold a job, and has good relationships, he's not considered "sick." The orthorexics referred to in this article are people who have significantly lost function in their lives because of their obsession with healthy eating. An example would be if somebody gave up all his friends because the thought of seeing them eat "unhealthy" foods gave the person panic attacks.

Maybe you are right about formal psychiatric definitions, but the article is titled "Have you got an eating disorder.. and don't even know it?" and has gems like "It's a hidden disorder, disguised by the healthy eating tag, but I'm recognising it in more people year on year..." So no, actually, the article is calling people orthorexic even though it make so little difference in their functioning no one notices.

kasmel:There is absolutely nothing wrong with corn in general. Corn meal and corn flour, with pretty much any legume, make a whole protein and between the two offer a considerable amount more actual nutrients.

Corn does jack crap for you, and somehow that it's become the base of 90% of our food's contents (if you include GMO's) Ok maybe not 90% but it's in farking everything. And especially if you're a corn farmer, then you really have no problem with corn! Hooray corn subsidies!

Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar, HFCS and other simple carbs make you fat by screwing with your insulin.

And trust me, you stick with List A and you'll be wolfing down all the avacados and bacon you can get your hands on because the rest of it is so low in fat.

Pretty much this. One of the worst pieces of mis-information out there around diet, is that fats are bad for you. Same as you, I cut out the simple carbs, sugar, hfcs, etc... and dropped 25 lbs over the winter. Hoping to drop another 20 or so over summer with bike training.

I missed this on my first read-through of your post, but it explains everything about your pro-carb stance. While it definitely is good for a weight loss plan, (moral/ethical dilemmas with eating animals non-withstanding) that isn't going to be good for you in terms of long-term sustainability.

Even these "bad" foods can still be eaten on occasion. We go out for Mexican food every now and then (2-3 times a month) and I have no problems with maintaining weight while having a few tacos.

The only one I really crave though is bread. Found a pretty good substitute in a flax bread recipe, also found some nice flax cracker recipes as well. Also ground flax meal, some boiling wate, a dab of butter and some fresh ground nutmeg make for a good breakfast, along with an egg or two.

For long bike rides I'll dig in to some high-carb goodies, oatmeal or other whole-grain cereal. As otherwise they are just too hard to enjoy.

kasmel:1. CornThere is absolutely nothing wrong with corn in general. Corn meal and corn flour, with pretty much any legume, make a whole protein and between the two offer a considerable amount more actual nutrients.

So does the slice of tri-tip I'm eating.

Most of my list is based on the current model of what we evolved eating. We didn't start eating corn, grains and potatos until relatively recently from an evolutionary perspective. They taste great because they are densely packed with simple carbs, especially sweet corn and usually have all the fiber stripped out for fast digestion and a good solid spike in blood sugar. Since they taste great and are easily available and cheap, we eat too much of them. Look at the standard US diet, most of the calories come from these simple carbs.

Like I said, a bit earlier, nothing on that list will kill you but it's not a good basis for a healthy diet. In general that list is pretty limited with respect to the ratio of micronutrients per calorie so unless you really need a high calorie diet you're better off eating something else.

Which probably means that you prepare a lot of your own meals which is going to make a huge difference in where you get your calories. When I first started trying to cut the sugar out of my diet I realized that HFCS is in farking *everything* including bread. Just cooking your own food will cut a huge amount of sugar out of your diet (unless you add a lot of sugar to the food you cook) and go a long way toward evening out the spikes in blood sugar. Eating a high fiber diet will do that as well as that will slow digestion.

Ever wonder why a high fiber diet improves your cholesterol balance? It isn't the fiber pulling cholesterol out of your bloodstream, it's the slower digestion smoothing the blood sugar levels and mitigating the rate of fructose processing by the liver. Unfortunately, the US diet and that list of foods you shouldn't eat is very low in fiber so you get a calorie dense diet with low micronutrients, fast digestion with spikes in blood sugar and insulin levels followed by insulin resistance, cravings for more carbs to bring up your blood sugar levels eventually leading to metabolic syndrome and obesity.

So good on you for not eating the standard diet. Personally I'll eat meat and skip the simple carbs.

star_topology:kasmel: There is absolutely nothing wrong with corn in general. Corn meal and corn flour, with pretty much any legume, make a whole protein and between the two offer a considerable amount more actual nutrients.

Corn does jack crap for you, and somehow that it's become the base of 90% of our food's contents (if you include GMO's) Ok maybe not 90% but it's in farking everything. And especially if you're a corn farmer, then you really have no problem with corn! Hooray corn subsidies!